196 Searle, Some New Victorian Copepoda. [^"^Feb^^** 



SOME NEW VICTORIAN COPEPODA. 



By J. Searle. 



{Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, nth Dec, 191 1.) 



Two of the species described in this paper were collected at 

 Nyora on 7th November, 1911 ; the other I have known for 

 some time and collected in many places. 



The Brunella was taken in a peaty swamp about a mile to the 

 west of Nyora and south of the railway line. 



It is a graceful animal, and can be distinguished readily from 

 other species by the great length of its first antennae. From 

 this feature it takes its specific name, B. longicornis. 



The second, Boeckella nyoraensis, is one of the largest, and 

 by far the most striking, of all the Boeckellidae. 



The enormous thoracic projections of the female, and the 

 amethyst tint of the antennae, render it a striking object. This 

 species was taken in a clear-water, weedy pond near the railway 

 line, and about four miles west of Nyora. 



The third species, B. pseudochelce, is also a remarkable one, 

 from the shape of the last pair of legs in the male. The end of 

 the claw on the right leg possesses an appendage somewhat 

 resembling the chela or nippers of a crab. It is not at all 

 uncommon ; I have taken it in great numbers at Yarra Glen and 

 West Warburton, also at Fairfield and Mansfield, but always in 

 small, shallow pools. Indeed at Mansfield I picked them up 

 with a pipette from a small pool by the roadside in which the 

 water was not three inches in depth. 



The Boeckellidae seem to be composed of two groups — one of 

 a sturdy, thick-set nature, opaque and brightly coloured, the 

 females possessing large wing-shaped projections on the last 

 thoracic segment ; the other more slender and graceful, trans- 

 luscent grey or green in colour, and with less prominent 

 elongations on the thorax. 



The two species of Boeckella here described belong to the 

 former group. The figures are all drawn from specimens by the 

 aid of a camera lucida. 



Brunella longicornis, J. Searle, n. sp. 



This is the fifth species of Brunella I have recorded tor 

 Victoria, and second new species from Nyora. 



Specific Characters. — Body of female ovate in form, broadest 

 at the first thoracic segment. Head and segment fused with it 

 longer than the following three segments. Fifth thoracic 

 segment small, without lateral projections, simply rounded off. 

 Abdomen consists of three segments, genital segment asym- 

 metrical, swollen in the middle, and very protuberant on the 

 ventral side ; caudal furca nearly as long as the abdomen. First 



